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The present invention relates to the field of document handling. More specifically, one embodiment of the invention provides for improved image handling in a networked appliance for recording, storing and serving digital images.
Video image capture devices are known, and many such devices have been used to capture images for presentation and distribution. In a typical process, a person uses a digital camera to capture a desired image. If the digital camera is not tethered to a personal computer, the person then connects the digital camera to a computer. Either way, the person would then have to open a photo processing application, capture the image and store it to a disk file after selecting a disk file name. To present the image on a web page (such as a page accessible by browsers of the World Wide Web available over the global internetwork of networks generally known as the xe2x80x9cInternetxe2x80x9d), the person would then have to create HyperText Markup Language (HTML) documents to reference an image file and move the stored image into the image file location. This operation typically involves at least two computers, the user""s input computer and the server computer which serves the images, once the person""s work is done, to web browsers.
The above complexity makes it difficult to quickly and easily capture images for presentation on a web.
An improved image server is provided by virtue of the present invention. In one embodiment of an image server according to the present invention, images are captured on a digital camera, which includes a removable image storage device. The image storage device is removed from the camera and placed into a port of an image server. The image server then automatically detects the image storage device and downloads the images stored thereon, adding various data elements, such as a camera ID, date of capture, and the like. Once the image is stored in the image server, the image server generates an HTML page that references the new image, or adds a new reference to an existing HTML page. The HTML pages are made available to web browsers that are able to access the image server and the images are thus presented, with optional captions and titles.
In a specific embodiment of an image server, the images stored thereon are also searchable by text (i.e., from the captions or titles) or by image features.
A further understanding of the nature and advantages of the inventions herein may be realized by reference to the remaining portions of the specification and the attached drawings.